NASA’S New Horizons space probe will soon reach the farthest known object in the solar system – Ultima Thule in the Kuiper Belt. Find out how to watch the historic moment live online on January 1.

The countdown is on for NASA’s New Horizons spacecraft to rendezvous with the Kuiper Belt object dubbed 2014 MU69. In just five day’s time, New Horizons will be the first man-made probe to reach the object, also known as Ultima Thule, for a close flyby. New Horizons, which also happens to be the first space probe to explore Pluto up close, will explore Ultima Thule at least three times closer on January 1, 2019. By the time the probe reaches Ultima Thule, it will have covered more than four billion miles (6.5 billion km).

Related articles

A second press conference will follow on Thursday, Wednesday 3, in the same time window.

NASA said: “New Horizons will approach Ultima Thule three times closer than it came to Pluto, resulting in even more detailed pictures and other kinds of data.

“The spacecraft will obtain the first high-resolution geological and compositional maps of a small Kuiper Belt object (KBO), while conducting sensitive searches for atmospheric activity, satellites and rings.”

NASA New Horizons: The spacecraft previously explored Pluto up close (Image: NASA/JOHN HOPKINS)

NASA New Horizons: Follow the live coverage of New Horizons with NASA online (Image: NASA TWITTER)

The single, dubbed New Horizons, will serve as a theme for NASA’s mission.

The guitarist said: “I was inspired by the idea that this is the furthest that the hand of man has ever reached – it will be by far the most distant object we have ever seen at close quarters, through the images which the spacecraft will beam back to Earth.”

The single will debut NASA's New Horizons Control Center in Maryland, US.

Mr May previously collaborated with NASA on the New Horizons mission as a science contributor.